Weekly Ethics Roundup

For ethics this week, let's play a little game of "should they?":
- should Andrea Mitchell report on the economy when she's married to one of the people most involved in the current crisis?
- should newspapers run op-ed pieces submitted by candidates even if they likely did not write them? (even though their competitors have done the same thing)
- should a journalist lose his job (in part) for racial epithets?
- should news organizations fight back when campaign strategic communicators characterize their journalism?
- should media report what is found in illegally hacked personal e-mails?
- should medication packaging and advertising be held to higher standards of disclosure?
- should releases and direct mail about voting be held to higher standards of accuracy?

KC's News Meeting

What are you thinking about in the news this week:
- $700 billion bailout ... what does it *actually* do?
- McCain debate proposal
- Couric and Palin
- U.S. actions in Pakistan
- Palin e-mail hacking
- Ehud Olmert steps down
- Letterman has fit of pique
- trial begins for Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens

Public servants and the media

Wow, this is a shot across the bow coming out of Detroit. This same council member was part of a kerfuffle I use in lectures on the compelling nature of video.
When you are a public servant, do you have an obligation to deal with the media? Why or why not? Journalists are often derided as being biased or outright liars. Are they? Does the state of news media today concern you?

Is the online model turning around?

Looks like what's bad for Wall Street was good for online news traffic.

Update

Here's an update to the funeral twittering.

Weekly Ethics Roundup

For this week's ethics discussion, let's look at a few matters of accuracy, taste and decency.
- Chicago Tribune refuses political comment in paid death notice
- Colorado paper uses Twitter at funeral
- campaign ad and issues of sex education
- lipstick and pigs
- should a single advertiser sponsor an entire magazine issue?
- where is the line between strat comm media relations and journalistic sourcing?
- is it OK to alter images in opinion pieces?

KC News Meeting

Hot topics in the news this week. Here's what I've been reading and hearing a lot about. Add your ideas via comments.
- AIG bailout
- Lehman lack-of-bailout
- money market guarantees
- deceptive ad accusations in prez campaign
- train crash in LA
- McCain/Palin visit Wisconsin
- Brewers' losses
- embassy bombing in Yemen
- will tainted Chinese milk lead to recall?
- Dane County smoking ban

Cool lead

A 202-er sends the following:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/14legiswe.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

as a sample of an inviting lead. Thanks for sending!

United Stock

Tribune thickens the plot of the plunging United Airlines stock by blaming Google. Check it out.

Daily Show

So in the volume-challenged and time-elapsing lecture hall Monday morning, I didn't get a chance to play that last video for you.

Go to Comedy Central and watch the video marked "Sarah Palin Gender Card."

So what is the Daily Show? Is it journalism? If so, how so? If not, why not? It matters a great deal because you and your peers watch it more than you consume mainstream news media.

Weekly Ethics Roundup

For your discussions on ethics in lab for the next six weeks, I'll post articles of interest under this header, Weekly Ethics Roundup. I'll include some interesting issues and controversies that have been percolating lately, and you'll discuss them in lab, led by your TA. Feel free to comment here on the blog, as well, or supply other links.

In the realm of responsibility:
- a story pulled from Chicago Tribune archives sends United Airlines stock plummeting
- Steve Jobs' death greatly exaggerated
- rumors about why Olbermann is out of the anchor chair? (first-day story here)
- oops, you're losing your job and I'm letting it slip
- hmmm, should I buy the New York Times?
- is there such a thing as bad fan publicity?

As you go through these, think about:
- the responsibility of the media workers involved
- to whom we're responsible as reporters and marketers (audience? society? bottom line? ourselves?)
- what happens to media credibility when rumors abound?
- when does it make sense to let audience take control of a message, if ever?
- what can be done to regain trust when mistakes happen? does it ever really come back?

KC's News Meeting

Each week in J202, we have a current events section on the quiz. To stimulate your reading and thinking about what is going on in your world, I'll post a few items of interest to this blog. I invite you to comment on these posts, known as "KC's News Meeting," and add items that you read in the news. While I can't promise every quiz question will come from these posts and comments, they're a great place to start getting yourself into the news. So read up and comment (and remember, if I see more than 105 comments to all my blog posts in a week, everyone's quiz score for that week goes up a point).

Here's some of what I've been interested in this week:
- financial crisis at giant Lehman Brothers firm
- candidates and earmarks
- big, fat collider smashing teeny, tiny particles
- a stroke in North Korea
- conflict between Russia and Georgia
- lipstick, pigs and a "Swift Boat" accusation

What are you reading about? Post a comment.